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Monday, August 26, 2013

Hello world!Labor Day is fast approaching; a day that we take the time to recognize the economic and social contributions of hard working Americans! Many of us take the long weekend to barbeque, rest and relax and maybe even catch up on our sleep. But if you’re a true bibliophile, you are probably bypassing all of that in hopes of getting in some valuable reading time! This week, discovering new authors and taking advantage of their marked down titles can earn you entries toward a Kindle Fire or Nook HD, winner’s choice! With a diverse selection of books including Young Adult, New Adult, Romance, and Erotic Romance, you’re sure to find some awesome reads for the upcoming holiday weekend!

Check out our selection of ebooks marked down to only $0.99 each for the duration of the giveaway. Once you've downloaded the ebook(s) of your choice, you will be emailed an invoice from wherever you purchased your ebook. Simply find which book you purchased on the Rafflecopter widget below and enter your invoice's order number (which does not contain any of your personal information). Each order number entered will earn you TEN entries toward the Kindle Fire or Nook HD. For every author whose page you follow on Facebook, you will receive one entry each. You can also receive an entry for tweeting about the giveaway on Twitter. So, get to browsing, get to know our sponsoring authors, and find your next favorite book! The winner will be drawn and notified September 3rd.

Thursday, August 08, 2013

Today I'm so proud to showcase my bestie and co-writer's new release: The Other
Side,

Book #1
in the Island Girls Trilogy (Ubuntu, Decadent Publishing). Zee is to me the queen of multicultural romances with a firm grip of the "Bollywood" world and culture, which she grew up in on her native island of Mauritius. This series really show's Zee's chops as an author who writes about culture and love and family's role within and beyond those boundaries. I read this work and I feel it's amazing! It's one of those books that makes you laugh, cry, tear your hear out and mutter to the characters while you're reading and sipping a daiquiri on the beach--and risk a few pointed glares and snide glances by all around you :). Here's a little about this fantastic book, buy links, a link to the trailer, and an excerpt. Enjoy!

Blurb:

Divorce paints a scarlet letter on her back when she
returns to the culture-driven society of Mauritius. This same spotlight shines
as a beacon of hope for the man who never stopped loving her. Can the second
time around be the right one for these former teenage sweethearts?

Indian-origin Lara Reddy left London after her husband
dumps her for a more accommodating uterus—at least, that’s what his desertion
feels like. Bumping into him and his pregnant new missus doesn’t help matters
any, and she thus jumps on a prestigious job offer. The kicker? The job is in
Mauritius, the homeland of her parents, and a society she ran away from over a
decade earlier.

But once there, Lara has no escape. Not from the
gossip, the contempt, the harassing matchmaking...and certainly not from the
man she hoped never to meet again. The boy she’d loved and lost—white Mauritian
native, Eric Marivaux.

Back when they were teens, Eric left her, and Lara
vowed she’d never let herself be hurt again. Today, they are both adults, and
facing the same crossroads they’d stood at so many years earlier.

Lara now stands on the other side of Mauritian
society. Will this be the impetus she needs to take a chance on Eric and love
again?

Stories about love, life, relationships... in a melting-pot of culture.

Zee is an author who grew up on a fence – on one side there was modernity
and the global world, on the other there was culture and traditions. Putting up
with the culture for half of her life, one day she decided she'd stand tall on
her wall and dip toes every now and then into both sides of her
non-conventional upbringing.

From this resolution spanned a world of adaptation and learning to live
on said wall. The realization also came that many other young women of the
world were on their own fence.

This particular position became her favorite when she decided to pursue her
lifelong dream of writing – her heroines all sit 'on a fence', whether cultural
or societal, in today's world or in times past, and face dilemmas about life
and love.

Hailing from the multicultural island of Mauritius, Zee is a degree
holder in Communications Science. She is a head-over-heels wife, in-over-her-head
mum to a tween son, best-buddy-stepmum to a teenage lad, an incompetent
domestic goddess, eternal dreamer, and an absolute, shameless bookholic. When
she isn’t penning more stories and/or managing the Ubuntu line at Decadent
Publishing, you can bet you’ll find her with her nose in her tablet, ‘drinking
in’ a good book.

Tidbits about this book & series:

- The Island
Girls trilogy follows the 3 Hemant sisters – Lara, Neha, Diya – over the span
of the 2000-2010 decade, chronicling the changing face of the Mauritian society
over that crucial period.

- Book 2, Light My World, is Diya’s hilarious
quest to find Prince Charming in the sea of frogs that is Mauritius (well, what
it is according to her perception!).
Follow her on this desperate mission in September 2013.

- Book 3, Winds of Change, follows Neha as she
must come to terms with widowhood and the fact that her marriage has always
been a sham. In waltzes a man with the ability to make the perfect, ‘saintly’
widow she is burn with passion like she never suspected existed. Will the saint
turn into a sinner, or find her rightful place simply as a woman? Find out in
November 2013.

- Mauritius,
where this trilogy takes place, is a small tropical island in the southern
Indian Ocean. There are no natives, and the land has been entirely populated by
immigrants. Under Dutch rule in the 17th century; French rule until
1810; then a British colony from 1810 to 1968 when it reached independence, the
island is a mix of races and religions.

- Despite all
races, cultures, and religions living together in harmony in what is termed
‘the rainbow nation’, an unspoken segregation still exists where descendants of
colonizers (mainly the French who remained despite British rule) and
descendants of African slaves, Indian indentured labourers, or Chinese traders.
This is the backdrop Lara, of Indian descent, must face with Eric, whose
ancestors were wealthy French plantation owners.

- Back in the
year 2000 (when this story takes place), divorce was an almost-alien, shunned
& vilified concept. People were still supposed to marry ‘for life’ and a
wife left her husband’s home only in her coffin. Those who dared brave this
silent edict did it at the risk of becoming marginalized and cast away. Like
Lara, the author, Zee, divorced her British husband and returned to the island
to face such drama. Much of the divorce angle in the book comes from her own
experience.

- The theme of
Second Chances is very prominent in Zee’s stories, because she herself, as a
divorcee, found a second chance with a wonderful man she has now called her
husband for over a decade.

- Zee started
penning this story after reading the epic novel ‘A Suitable Boy’ by Vikram
Seth. She wanted to write a magnum opus; something to showcase ‘her’ world in
Mauritius the same way Mr. Seth chronicled ‘his’ India. Alas, she found she was
totally fluffy and did not do well at all with a literary bent. The result was
The Other Side, a popular romantic comedy that had notes of Zee TV/Bollywood
dramas with an island vibe.

- Zee’s initial
plan was to write this one book and then be finished. Over the course of the
story, Lara’s two sisters – Diya and Neha – started whispering their own
tales...and the trilogy was born.

- The Other Side
is Zee’s first-ever penned novel, written in the year 2005, when she was diagnosed
with breast cancer and thus decided to live her dream of writing a book. She
drafted this book mostly during sleepless nights between chemotherapy sessions,
the outpouring of this tale becoming her therapy to cope with her treatments.

- The book trailer
features images of locations mentioned in the story. The second image, at 0.08,
is of the Grand Baie beach, where Lara lives. At 0.58 is the Swami Vivekananda
International Conventions Centre located inland in Pailles, that Zee used as
the inspiration for the centre Lara manages in Grand Baie. 2.09 features the
Coin de Mire Island, a visual that can be admired from the terrace of Eric’s
residence in Cap Malheureux.

***

Excerpt:

Lost in her thoughts, she rounded a dead corner of the hall, slamming
into someone’s side. Disoriented and dizzy with confusion at the jolting oomph
of impact against a solid form, she stumbled, losing control over her legs. She
saw the walls moving up rapidly, but a strong pair of hands grabbed her under
the arms before the back of her head hit the floor.

Where are you running to, miss? he’d asked, from what her rusty French could
figure out.

Away from you. Something inside her acknowledged the danger before she could process
his words. She knew that voice. Her head spun again, yet her mind was very
alert.

Could it be…? No, it couldn’t. Her brain had to be playing tricks on her. The
sound with its particular accent belonged to the very distant past. How was she
hearing it at this moment? Had she fainted? That’s
it. She wasn’t conscious, and since she’d probably worked herself to
exhaustion, the condition had triggered all sorts of switches in her muddled
consciousness.

The image of the man from the airport burned itself into her mind, and
she gasped. No!

“Is everything okay?” The chuckle had gone from the tone, replaced by
worry.

Solid strength still held her ribcage, the back of the hands warm and
smooth where they touched her arms. The heat from them went to her head,
churning all coherent thought into a jumble.

Her mind had to be playing a trick on her. He couldn’t be who she was
imagining. When, after a few seconds, it didn’t appear like she’d come around,
doubt invaded her heart.

Your eyes won’t betray you, they’ll see the
truth.

She risked a glance up beneath her lashes. She had to be certain if this
was real or not. To know this was all a trick of her imagination….

Lara encountered a tall form with broad shoulders outlined in a
short-sleeved shirt. The lapels of the opened collar framed a strong jaw and a
wide, full, and sensual mouth was set in a worried line above a square chin. A
fine, straight nose sent faint shadows over his lips.

She had to gulp back the ominous lump wedged in her throat. Her heart
beat a hammering throb in her chest, and her mouth went dry. Her suspicions
looked dangerously close to being confirmed, and the nagging notion played
havoc with her thoughts. She closed her eyes.

When she opened them, she found herself staring into a pair of blue
irises. A blinding flash went through her head, plunging her heart to her
knees. She’d recognize those irises anywhere. Deep-set, bright, and laughing
eyes the colour of the deepest ocean. The heavy, golden locks brushing his
forehead accentuated the frown knitting his eyebrows.

Locks that had somehow broken free from the thick, smoothed-back hair.
She itched to sweep them back, to run the tips of her fingers along his smooth
skin, like she used to in the past, onto the soft buzz of hair he used to keep
so short….

Her mind went into a crazy spin, and all her senses reeled as everything
became a vivid kaleidoscope of colours. Her stomach heaved, and her knees went
weak as her body became limp. But the man’s strong grip was still on her, and
he kept her steady on her feet.

“Are you okay? I think you better sit down here,” he said.

The voice made its way into her perception, and she couldn’t suppress
the relief that flooded her. His voice had always had such power over her.

He still hasn’t recognised me.

She’d changed a lot in
the past decade, and with her head still bent forward, her hair shielded her
face. She wanted to escape. She wanted to close her eyes, and then open them to
find it had all been a dream. Or a nightmare.

But this was real, and
how long could she remain incognito? Lara swallowed painfully. Of all the
people from her past, fate had had to choose that precise person to shove along
her path.

All of this battled
inside her mind as she allowed him to lead her to a sofa. After having lowered
her into her seat with extreme care and gentleness, her saviour sat down next
to her, turning to face her profile. The movement triggered the air to move
around him, and the smell of his aftershave—fresh, spicy, and very
elusive—filled her nostrils and made its way into her foggy mind.

He still smells the same. Like a cool sea breeze wafting through the
unique musk of a man’s warm skin.

Lara took a deep
breath and gathered her courage. She would have to face him sooner or later. A
part of her had always known she ran the risk of coming across him on the
island. She’d preferred to hide from the probability, but she couldn’t run
anymore.

So she lifted her
head. A frown marred the wide forehead on the face she encountered. As
devastatingly handsome as ever. Or maybe, even more than ever. His features
were arresting, masculine, adult. No longer those of a teenager.

Her mouth went dry
again, and her heart beat faster when the straight line of his lips broke into
a large smile a few seconds later. His eyes lit up as well, and widened.

“I’ll be damned! Lara?
Is it really you?” he asked, switching effortlessly to English.

She forced a smile and
took a deep breath. “Hello, Eric. How are you?”

~ Natalie G. Owens ~ No Rules. No Formulas. Just a world of love, mystery and fantasy!